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      <h1>Use Documentation</h1>
      <p>This document briefly describes the basic steps for using iTexx, the text <a href="foraging.htm">foraging companion</a>.</p>
      <h2>The basic Idea</h2>
      <p>The basic idea behind iTexx is that browsing for documents could be drastically improved. This saying, we do not doubt the usefulness of search engines like Bing, Google or Yahoo. Yet, the way of using them did not change since the first days of Altavista back in 1995.</p>
      <p>Many things changed since then. In fact, too many as to still conceive it reasonable to browse the world wide web like simple machines, though even less powerful than them.</p>
      <p>The idea underlying iTexx thus employs on the following five cornerstones:</p>
      <ul>
        <li>1. Browsing should take the context into account. </li>
        <li>2. Browsing should not be done manually. </li>
        <li>3. Browsing should be organized as a continuous process. </li>
        <li>4. Browsing should not draw a separation between &quot;local&quot;&nbsp;documents and remote sources. </li>
        <li>5. The browsing process should be based on an engine that is capable for learning. </li>
      </ul>
      <p>There is,&nbsp; of course, quite a deal of theory behind that. Maybe, this theory&nbsp;is&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; interesting for some experts. From the perspective of the usage it should not be &quot;visible&quot;, except perhaps with regard to the fact that it is the theory that allows for&nbsp;the particular simplicity and power of iTexx. Yet, you should be aware about the languuage specificity of iTexx (<a href="language.htm">read more</a>).</p>
      <p>Upon your first encounter with it, the basic question is thus...</p>
      <h2>How to use it?</h2>
      <p>Here we don't need to say much about the purpose of iTexx, that is, the meaning it will acquire for you. There are many particular purposes imaginable. Regardless your personal interests, the basic actions for using iTexx are always the same.</p>
      <p>The question about usage is divided into&nbsp;two or three parts. </p>
      <ul>
        <li>1. How to enter the criteria for a <a href="foraging.htm">foraging raid</a>? </li>
        <li>2. What are the results and how to access it? </li>
        <li>3. How to deal with the issue of persistence? </li>
      </ul>&nbsp; The whole process is really simple and the full cycle can be accomplished by just 
      <ul>
        <li>- one mouse action in the text at hand; </li>
        <li>- one keyboard &quot;copy&quot; action; </li>
        <li>- one click to iTexx; </li>
        <li>- one double click to one of the top-level results; </li>
      </ul>
      <p>From these properties <a href="usecases.htm">typical use-cases</a> derive.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
      <h3>Entering Search Criteria</h3>
      <p>Since iTexx overcomes the framework of keyword based retrieval, there is consequently no such element like a text area any more. Instead, the basic action consists of two simple steps: Copy &amp; Click.</p>
      <ul>
        <li>1. Copy: selecting the textual&nbsp;data you are interested in and copying into the clipboard using the keyboard, which is Ctrl-C on&nbsp;Windows machines or Option-C on Mac OSX machines. </li>
        <li>2. Click: clicking to one of the panels in iTexx. </li>
      </ul>
      <p>That's all. iTexx then reads the clipboard and&nbsp;starts to analyze the entered data, forming classical queries to the search engines in the background and collecting the results. </p>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <h3>Accessing the Presented Results</h3>
      <p>The results of any of the single queries are ranked by iTexx according to their &quot;similarity&quot; to the input criteria. Obviously, the more aspects&nbsp;are covered&nbsp;by the criteria&nbsp;the better&nbsp;the results wll match your interests. (see the document &quot;<a href="advanced_criteria.htm">How to set advanced criteria</a>&quot;).</p>
      <p>The results still consist of links to found sources. They are presented on panels that are organized in a scrollable list.</p>
      <p>A double click to any of the panel will open the browser that is defined as default on your system, showing the respective source.</p>
      <p>The biggest difference to traditional browsing is that this list will be continuously updated. In other words, this list may not be considered as something finished. It is more appropriate to regard it as a process that runs in parallel to your actual work, let it be reading a document or writing one. </p>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <h3>Persistence of Results</h3>
      <p>The results can be made persistent in three ways.</p>
      <ul>
        <li>1.&nbsp;explicitly retrieving and saving a source into the local folder system; this functionality is accessible through the context menu of any of the panels. Most important, iTexx will interpret such an explicit action as an expression of the your positive interest in the subject. In other words, iTexx learns a relationship between a particular expression of interest as given by the foraging criteria and the particular result item; </li>
        <li>2.&nbsp;exporting the actual list into a reloadable file; </li>
        <li>3. implicitly learning from the high-ranked texts and the positive weighting expressed by your activity. </li>
      </ul>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
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